Defn: To renounce a legal title to a further share of paternal inheritance.
FORISFAMILIATION
Fo`ris*fa*mil`i*a"tion, n. (Law)
Defn: The act of forisfamiliating.
FORK
Fork, n. Etym: [AS. forc, fr. L. furca. Cf. Fourch, Furcate.]
1. An instrument consisting consisting of a handle with a shank terminating in two or more prongs or tines, which are usually of metal, parallel and slightly curved; — used from piercing, holding, taking up, or pitching anything.
2. Anything furcate or like of a fork in shape, or furcate at the extremity; as, a tuning fork.
3. One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow. Let it fall . . . though the fork invade The region of my heart. Shak. A thunderbolt with three forks. Addison.
4. The place where a division or a union occurs; the angle or opening between two branches or limbs; as, the fork of a river, a tree, or a road.
5. The gibbet. [Obs.] Bp. Butler. Fork beam (Shipbuilding), a half beam to support a deck, where hatchways occur. — Fork chuck (Wood Turning), a lathe center having two prongs for driving the work. — Fork head. (a) The barbed head of an arrow. (b) The forked end of a rod which forms part of a knuckle joint. — In fork. (Mining) A mine is said to be in fork, or an engine to "have the water in fork," when all the water is drawn out of the mine. Ure. — The forks of a river or a road, the branches into which it divides, or which come together to form it; the place where separation or union takes place.
FORK
Fork, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Forked; p. pr. & vb. n. Forking.]